Digital to time converters (DTCs) are typically used in radio frequency (RF) transceivers and similar systems. The DTC is used to detect and identify a time difference between two signals. The DTCs are used to generate modulated and unmodulated local oscillator (LO) signals, where an input signal is compared with a reference clock.
There are three characteristics of DTCs that are of significance; quantization resolution, frequency range, and power consumption. The quantization resolution determines how small of timing differences or variations a DTC is capable of detecting. The frequency range is the frequency of input signals that the DTC is capable of measuring. Power consumption is the amount of power consumed by the DTC during operation.
These characteristics tend to be at odds with each other. For example, obtaining a higher quantization resolution typically decreases the frequency range of the DTC and increases the power consumption.
What is needed is a technique to obtain relatively high quantization resolution for suitable frequency ranges and power consumption.